The present invention relates broadly to charge coupled devices, and in particular to a charge coupled device providing signal compression of the input charge over the integration period of the device.
The charge coupled device generally comprises a plurality of electrodes which are provided on a thin insulating film that is provided on a semiconductor substrate for applying an intergration voltage to the integration electrodes during an integration period to cause potential wells to be produced in the semiconductor substrate. Information carrier charge is introduced to the device to be integrated in the potential well and by applying a transfer pulse to all of the electrodes including the integration electrodes during the succeeding transfer period to cause the information carrier charge to be transferred in a prescribed direction. The information carrier charge is sequentially read from the output terminal of the end position of the charge coupled device. The charge coupled device thus entails means for integrating, means for transferring, and means for reading out the applied input charge information.